November 12, 2008 - Issue 08-05

Priority Issues

Dismal Stats Mean Canada is Recession-Bound: TD
How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada – from the Conference Board of Canada

Anti-Counterfeiting Corner
Help EFC & the Industry Report Unsafe Electrical Products

Electrical Contractor/TED Magazine Target Counterfeit Electrical Products
 

New Emerging Issues
EU “Ecodesign” Aims at Improving the Environmental Performance of Products

Upcoming Industry Events
E-PAC, the EEMAC Policy Advisory Committee – Next Meeting @ EFC, Dec. 2, 2008
Any member company representative interested in participating in these all-encompassing technical discussions, please contact Joseph Neu, EFC’s VP, Engineering, Codes & Standards: jneu@electrofed.com
Canadian Solar Industries Association (CANsia) Conference - Dec. 8-9, Toronto
Uptime: Strategies for Excellence in Maintenance Management - Dec. 8 & 9,  Toronto
The 9th China International Electric Power & Electric Engineering Technology Exhibition -April 23-25, 2009
 

Priority Issues

Dismal Stats Mean Canada is Recession-Bound: TD
After a wild financial month, which saw markets take a nose-dive and the loonie slide to its lowest level in several years, TD Bank reported Friday that Canada would fall into its first recession in 16 years. Between October and December, the country's GDP will fall at an annualized rate of 2.6 per cent and will suffer a 0.5 per cent drop during the early months of 2009, TD Bank reported.
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How Canada Performs: A Report Card on Canada – from the Conference Board of Canada
Canada’s most recent annual report card is disappointing. While Canada is still in the gifted class among nations, its report card tells the story of a country moving to the back of the class because of its underperformance in almost all subjects. Click on the link below to view the reports on Economy, Innovation, Health, Education & Skills, Society and the Environment.
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Anti-Counterfeiting Corner

Help EFC & the Industry Report Unsafe Electrical Products

EFC and its Anti-Counterfeiting Committee have created an Unsafe/Counterfeit Product Incident Report that allows the industry to report suspected counterfeit and unsafe electrical products to EFC and relevant inspection agencies. EFC is calling all member companies to display Web button(s) on their Website, directly linking the button to the Product Incident Report. The Web buttons (English and French versions) can downloaded by clicking here. The buttons then need to be linked to the Product Incident Report (now also available in both official languages).

If you have any questions, please contact Swati Patel, Manager of Communications, EFC by phone at 905-602-8877 ext. 219 or by email at spatel@electrofed.com

Counterfeit Circuit Breakers
The difference could be a preventable house fire that takes the lives of your customers, or the assurance of safety that comes from using qualified parts from an authorized manufacturer or dealer. A distributor was recently invited to visit China by a company that manufactured circuit breakers. He was surprised to be offered circuit breakers both with and without trip mechanisms.
To view this NAED\NEMA information notice, Click Here

Ontario's Electrical Safety Authority Appoints General Manager - Product Safety
ESA recently announced the appointment of Normand Bretton to the position of General Manager - Product Safety.  This newly-created position will oversee the implementation and enforcement of the recent Ontario Regulation 438-08, as it relates to unsafe and counterfeit electrical products in the Ontario marketplace. Norm will be joining ESA on November 18, 2008.  With 16 years of experience with Underwriters Laboratories of Canada, currently as the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Chief Engineer, Norm has an extensive operational, regulatory and engineering background in the areas of product safety, certification, testing and standards development.  Congratulations to Norm!

Electrical Contractor/TED Magazine Target Counterfeit Electrical Products

In the USA, Electrical contracting industry allies are joining forces in a new, industry-wide effort to eliminate the rapidly increasing crime of counterfeit electric products in the US—90+ percent of which are imported from China. Now reaching epic proportions in a $130 billion industry, it involves almost every type of electrical products—from wiring, switches and lighting to pirated Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. (UL) labels—in commercial and residential buildings. Counterfeiting is a crime that threatens the lives and safety of electrical workers and all citizens.
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New Emerging Issues

EU “Ecodesign” Aims at Improving the Environmental Performance of Products
The Ecodesign Directive 2005/32/EC1 establishes a framework for the setting of ecodesign requirements for energy-using products. The Directive is therefore a key component of the EU’s policy for improving the energy and environmental performance of products on the internal market. Its potential to cover other environmentally-significant products, namely all energy-related products, was highlighted in the recently-adopted Action Plan on Sustainable Consumption and Production and Sustainable Industrial Policy2, which does not however affect the present working plan. The Directive ensures free movement of products across Europe and encourages integration of ecodesign in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To view the Communication from the European Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, Click Here.

Ongoing Issues of Interest

Canadian Standards Association Wraps Up "Electric Week 2008"
All last week, CSA’s Strategic and Technical Committees (TC) met at their offices on Spectrum Way in Mississauga to deal with numerous issues related to specific areas of interest. The Technical Committees included: Objective-Based Industrial Code, Industrial Products, Wiring Products, International Standards and General Requirements. On Friday, the week wrapped up with a meeting of the TC oversight group, the Strategic Committee on Requirements for Electrical Safety (SCORES). A special “Thank You” was bestowed on Tony Flood who has retired from his long-time CSA activity, most recently as Chair of the TC International Standards (TCIS). Congratulations to Mike Smith, Rockwell who was appointed the new Chair of the TCIS. The attached SCORES meeting notes taken by Joseph Neu also include the various Technical Committee reports as embedded documents. Please remember these are rough notes related to ongoing issues and not intended to provide subject detail or background. To view these notes, visit:
http://www.electrofed.ca/CodeFYI/issue05%2008-11-12/jos_notes.doc

Canada's Largest Wind Energy Installation Officially Opens
Canadian Hydro Developers Inc. has announced the official opening of the Melancthon EcoPower Centre, a 199.5 MW wind power project located near Shelburne, Ontario. Construction of the Melancthon EcoPower Centre began with the 67.5 MW phase I in the spring of 2005 and achieved commercial operation in March 2006. Construction of the 132 MW Phase II of the project began in the autumn of 2007 and is expected to achieve commercial operation in November.
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CodeFYI is a bi-monthly e-Newsletter from Electro-Federation Canada: www.electrofed.com.

If you have any questions, or would like to contribute new updates to this newsletter, please contact
Joseph Neu at jneu@electrofed.com.